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2 <br />Orange County, NC <br />Consolidated Plan for 2000-2005 <br />Executive Summary <br />Background <br />Located in North Carolina, Orange County includes not only the towns of Carrboro and <br />Hillsborough, but also Chapel Hill, the home of the largest campus of the State university. The <br />presence of university students, more affluent and transient than other county residents, has <br />created an imbalance in terms of housing and community development needs. Orange County <br />must, therefore, concentrate its efforts on serving a strong urban community and rural areas as <br />well. <br />The important housing issues in Orange County have not changed. The high cost of <br />homeownership has left many families out of the housing market or sent them to surrounding <br />counties to buy homes and commute into Orange County for work. The rental market, inflated <br />by the ability of UNC-CH students able to pay higher rents, is beyond the means of families with <br />incomes below 50% of the area median. For families in need of three or more bedrooms, very <br />little housing stock exists. The number of women and children staying at the homeless shelter <br />continues to increase dramatically, and transition from the shelter into permanent housing in <br />Orange County is nearly impossible since no transitional housing exists. Housing for special <br />interest groups such as the elderly, persons that are developmentally disabled, and persons with <br />alcohol or drug addiction, is limited in Orange County. <br />Community Profile <br />Orange County, North Carolina includes the incorporated Towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and <br />Hillsborough„ and is the home of the largest campus of the State university system - the <br />University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The County is a part of the Raleigh-Durham- <br />Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) that comprises six counties in the Research <br />Triangle Area with a population of 1.1 million people. <br />The region is highly rated as a place to live and do business. In addition, Orange County, in <br />particular, has the most expensive cost for new housing in the region and Chapel Hill is among a <br />few larger cities in the state rated high on the cost of living index. Further, the County enjoys a <br />low unemployment rate of approximately one (1) percent. These "firsts" present a, challenge in <br />addressing the housing needs of Orange County residents. <br />In 2000, the population of Orange County is estimated to be 111,982. That represents a 19% <br />population growth since 1990, with an anticipated growth of 8% through 2005. Of that number, <br />approximately 77 percent were White, 16 percent were African American, and 7 percent were of <br />other minority groups including American Indian, Asian, and Hispanic. The fastest growing <br />segments of the population are of Asian and/or Hispanic descent whose population has more <br />than doubled since 1993.